Hudson River and Eastern Erie Canal

We left Staten Is. at 9 am, after the ferry boat rush with commuters was mostly over.  The water was still very rough with choppy waves and many large freighters moving through.  Once past the "narrows" things calmed down and we could enjoy the cruise up the Hudson.  The "city" stretched for quite a ways up river and we saw lots of high-rise construction in progress.

After several miles the buildings were replaced with greenery and trees.

This very impressive set of buildings, about 50 miles up the Hudson from NY City, is West Point, the US Military Academy.

Lighthouses come in all shapes and sizes, some cuter than others.  We particularly liked this one!

Kingston was a fun stop with a wooden boat building competition going on.

 Our wildlife sightings were rare.  Other than birds, this little guy was pretty unique.

However, we saw many old towns and historic buildings.

The first lock we came to on the Hudson was just above Albany at Troy, sometimes called the Federal Lock.  Wish we had pictures, but we were so stressed about the approach and technique of handling it, we didn't dare loose focus for a silly picture. Angie barely slept the night before.  Here is a picture of a typical lock we encountered later on the Erie Canal.  The lock is on the left and a dam on the Mohawk river is on the right.

All of the locks we encountered were about 40 ft wide by 150 ft long and have some arrangement of ropes, cables, or pipes running vertically up the lock sidewalls.  The boater's task is to get along side, grab a couple of these appendages and hang on while the water is either released into or out of the lock.  There is always some turbulence pushing the boat around and if it is windy that adds to the dynamics. Get 2-3 boats in there with various crew abilities and it can become a real circus.

We found that trying to steady a 25,000 lb boat while holding on to a couple of wet ropes dangling 20 to 40 ft above you is a rather ineffective and futile task.  We quickly adapted and while Angie stood on the deck holding the rope or cable, John stayed at the helm and would simply use the boats power to stay put. Our side thrusters really earned their keep and they never failed!  We've gone through 22 locks so far, with 13 left before reaching the canal's end in Buffalo.

The canal was first started in 1817 and has been upgraded and rerouted several times since then.  Small sections of the older lock system still exist.

There are no anchorages along the canals, but many of the locks and towns have concrete walls to tie off on.  Most are free, others offer electricity and/or water and charge a small fee $10-50/nite.

It rained a lot the last few days (and for months according to the locals), but when it stopped the water was like glass. 

We stopped in Breweton, NY at Winter Harbor.  They will pull Happy Daze out and store her on the hard while we return home.  She will get a hull cleaning, bottom paint, oil change, wax job, and couple of small repairs taken care of before we return.  

We've cruised almost 2400 miles since leaving Pensacola last December, so we're probably a little less than half way around our Loop. When we get back around Aug 1, we'll do the western section of the Erie Canal and into the Great Lakes portion of our cruise.  Looks like we are still on schedule to "cross our wake" in December this year, but there is a lot of water and new places to see, still ahead.

Staten Island and Manhattan

After going outside from Atlantic City, we berthed at Great Kills Yacht Club on Staten Island.  It is a small private club that allows transients from other clubs for short visits.  Our host John Calascibetta was very gracious and even drove us to the train station for our quick visit to Manhattan.

We took the train up Staten Is to reach the ferry,

which took us past the statue of liberty,

to the lower part of Manhattan.

We first visited the Trade Towers Memorial with the reflecting ponds and tall skyscraper:

We had lunch at Rockefeller Center, then visited St Peters Cathedral,

and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They had a large exhibit of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural designs.

and even a few of his models:

There was an assortment of modern and classic paintings as well, including several by Van Gogh:

Later on we saw another "van gogh".  NY has everything!

Last Leg of the Atlantic InterCoastal Waterway

We flew back to Hampton, VA on June 14 with plans to head North, up Chesapeake Bay.

 Happy Daze looked in good shape, only missing one of her exterior sunscreens due to high winds while we were gone.  We had the Bluewater yard replace the main engine water impeller before our our arrival as a preventative maintenance measure (we already had the dinghy motor impeller fail,  and one in the generator!).  All seemed good until we found out our batteries were dead, dead, dead.  A visit from the yard's electrician and we discovered a switch left in wrong position and a charger controller that did not reset automatically.  An evening of worry, but all seemed well the next day (fingers crossed).

We eased out into the waters of lower Chesapeake that are filled with naval craft.

And of course there are the commercial container ships:

But also a few hardy souls who brave the contested waters with pieces of canvas:

We found two lovely anchorages on our way up.  The first was very secluded up a side river, with no one else around.  We dingy-ed several miles inland on flat water with lots of greenery.  The second was more popular, but after the sun went down everything got quiet and peaceful.

We stopped over in Delaware City for a bit of history and enjoyed a fine meal at Crabby Dicks with new fellow Loopers we met at the dock.

We stayed over a day in Delaware City due to high winds and rain forecasts.  Enjoyed a walk around town and catching up on email.  Even found a working blacksmith shop.

The cruise down Delaware Bay was tolerable, but not fun.  Nothing much to see and waves on our beam that made us rock around.  After going through the canal to Cape May and about to exit through the inlet to the ocean we came along side a very boisterous marching group.

The weather was good so we continued on to Atlantic City where we pulled in to find a small bay to anchor for the night. A long 90 mile day, but felt it important to take advantage of the weather when we could.  The bay was surrounded by condos, but they all appeared empty.  Maybe they were all at the amusement parks we saw along the shore on the way in?

Weather looked good the next day so we pushed on to NY.  We had 3-4 ft roller swells mostly from behind us, so the ride was not too bad.  About 100 miles and we did most of it at 20 mph.

In this leg, we completed the upper ICW by traveling 400 miles in 5 days, plus one lay-over day.  It was only due to good weather that allowed this.  We met other Loopers who had waited several days to do the Delaware Bay or outside NJ.

Heading North !

On April 30, we flew back down to FL to continue our journey.  Repairs were all made and we were excited to get going.  Of course the airlines added a bit of frustration by having our 6:30 am flight out of Durango delayed by 3 hrs, missing our connection in Dallas, which put us on a later flight, which was then also delayed.  We arrived in West Palm Beach airport at 2 am, then drove to boat arriving at 3 am May 1.  After a bit of sleep, we went to the store for provisions, returned rental car, and prepared Happy Daze for travel the next morning.

Our first test was the St. Lucie lock, it dropped us 12 ft.  The repaired thrusters worked like a charm and our stress level was lowered immensely (as seen with Angie checking her phone during the process).

With newly restored confidence we continued on with the goal of making up time to get some miles under our keep.  We had boated in these waters earlier with Snow Bird, so we didn't feel like we were missing out on anything by not stopping more to sight-see.  The weather was good and we traveled 103 and 106 miles on our first two days.  On the third, we covered 125 miles, but mutually decided it was too much; we were both very tired from the stress of reading charts, avoiding other boats, watching the low depths, looking for debris in the water, etc. We anchored in very peaceful places with few if any other boats around.  Here I am at the helm, with plenty of electronic support.

We anchored near Cape Canaveral, but just missed the take off and landing of a Space X rocket by just a couple of days.



The shrimp boats were out in force.



And so were the Ospreys;




We even spied a couple of bald eagles;



Not to mention the variety of smaller flying critters we encountered;



A new stop for us was Port Royal Landing, SC.  We were in need of fuel and decided to tie up for the night and enjoy a meal ashore.  We had also discovered our generator would not work and needed attention.  On top of that, as we came in to dock it was very windy and I really needed our thrusters to maneuver, but they quit working!  Luckily a couple of fellows came over and grabbed our lines so we did not damage anything (other than my pride).  It was Cinco de Mayo so we drowned our sorrows in margaritas and great seafood.

The next morning I played mechanic and was able to replace the raw water impeller in the generator so it was good to go.  A couple of calls to the factory gave me the guidance on how to check the thruster wiring as it is susceptible to being bumped when we store our fenders below deck.  Sure enough, like a miracle, a little straightening and tightening and we had thrusters again!  Needless to say we are now very careful putting stuff away near that connection.

We had some very rough, big water, crossings in GA and SC (St. Andrew, Sapelo, St. Catherine, and Port Royal Sounds).  When the tidal current is against the wind, the waves become very harsh and close together.  The reward for making it through was to then enter some of the most shallow waterways on the ICW.  Tides in GA are up to 10-12 ft, so you can encounter currents of 2-3 mph with and against you.  But at low tide there may only be 1-2 ft under your keel if you stay in channel and much less very quickly if you stray outside.  Thankfully the bottom is mostly sand and silt, so major concern is getting stuck, not damaged.

An interesting and popular stop is Coinjock, VA.  They have a single 1000 ft dock along the water, with restaurant, fuel, water, and pump-out available.  They take around 25 transient boats every night ($2/ft) and stack them very tightly, even overlapping, as you can see below looking out from our stern.

That boat behind us left at 5 am along with a couple of other mega-yachts.  We followed an hour or so later, but caught up with them and followed them through the bridges and lock getting to Norfolk.  They only open at certain times so we went as a small convoy for several miles together.

We passed through Norfolk with all of its mighty warships and industry.  We had stayed near there before and decided to go on to Hampton and tie-up at Bluewater Marina.

Overall we were gone for 14 days for this leg, with 10 days cruising, and covered 1045 miles.  We spent about 20% of our time going at 6- 8 mph in minimum wake zones and congested areas; the rest of the time we moved at 20 mph (a nice 80% of maximum engine rpm).

We will leave Happy Daze in Hampton for about a month.  It was cold and rainy most of the time we were there buttoning her up, but the locals say it will be much warmer come June.